Recently, this blog posted a story about the tragic circumstances of Aleppo, once the center of Jewish life in Syria. There are many ways which genealogists can document the rich history and culture of their families from there. One is by investigating the food that they ate and the ways it was prepared.A lovely book by Poopa Dweck has been published which documents the cookery of the Syrian Jews. It is entitled “Aromas of Aleppo, The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews”. The book contains 180 mouth-watering recipes of a culture which has been disbursed around the world.Syrian Jews are supposed to be one of the largest groups of Sephardic Jews and their cuisine stretches back thousands of years. The staples of Middle Eastern cookery are included in their diet, but it is the manner in which the food is cooked and the special items that are used in particular dishes that make it special and enticing.

Poopa Dweck

The book by Poopa Dweck is a beautifully illustrated, well-written and a deliciously-tempting vision of Aleppo Jewry’s culinary art. An interesting review of the book can be found at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAPZtLGLjW0In addition to the wonderful food of the Aleppo Jews, one can learn of their history on the JewishGen site at: http://www.jewishgen.org/sephardic/AleppoJews.htm. The effort put forth by Sarina Roffe to bring this culture to our attention is a work of love. The music of the Aleppo Jews will also entrance you, especially the well-known Shabbat Bakashot supplications which can be heard played by noted Isaeli Yitzhak Yedid, the son of Syrian Jews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaL8YdHuV6k. The site also provides a fascinating and an extensive explanation of the Bakashot.This is just a start on what can be learned about the Aleppo Jewish community.

The US National Archives and Records Administration launched their online videos
of its most popular "how to" workshops . These are short videos which range from
8 minutes to just over one hour can be used as training aides or part of an
overall beginning genealogy sessions your society may offer. All you need is a computer
to view them.

The Old Bailey was and still is the central criminal court for England and Wales. It is located in central London and stands on part of the site of the Bailey to the ancient Fleet Prison
that was demolished in the nineteenth century.. This court still hears the most serious criminal cases
for London and much of the rest of the country. The Proceedings of the Old
Bailey website contains a great collection of detailed records from some
200,000 criminal cases spanning roughly 240 years. This collection has been
slowly increasing over time. Only the most hardened criminals ended up at
the Old Bailey. If you want to know if you had any really interesting
characters in your family tree access this free website go to: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

To
check it out by typing in some "typically Jewish sounding names" Cohen,
Levy, Goldberg, Goldstein and found records including all of these
names-either as witnesses or as the criminals.

The project is a
collaboration between the Universities of Hertfordshire and Sheffield and
the Open University, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and
the Big Lottery Fund.

The issue of identity theft and the Death Master File, also known under the
commercial version, Social Security Death Index (SSDI) has been discussed
on this forum previously- with 4 bills having been introduced late last
year: HR 3475 (Johnson R-TX); S 1534 (Nelson, D-FL), HR 3482 (Castor
D-FL) and HR 3215 (Castor-D-FL and Nugent R-FL). On July 26, 2012 two more
bills were introduced, interestingly by some of the same authors of the
bills already introduced:

Both
of these new bills contain provisions for "certification" and a waiting period of 2 years. This is similar to the bills both authors also introduced
in 2011 [S 1534 and H 3215] . The reason for introducing similar bills in
2012 as in 2011 may be as simple as the first bills did not receive a
hearing and they wanted the bills to be on the "radar" of the committees
they have been assigned. As IAJGS learns more about these bills information
about any potential hearing or other information will be posted to this
forum.

IAJGS submitted statements on our position to earlier hearings
on the issue of identity theft and the Death MasterFile/SSDI --the hearings
were not on specific bills, and our statements may be viewed at the
Legislative Alert that is posted to our website: http://www.iajgs.org/pramc/Latest_Alert.pdf
. While this alert was updated in late May it is still valid regarding the
issue of SSDI/Death Master File. An updated Legislative Alert will be
forthcoming shortly and when it is updated it will be announced on this
forum.

For those interested in Britain, this free website may be of interest: A
Vision of Britain Through Time http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/.
It covers 1801-2001. The website provides a useful way to search the United
Kingdom by place name. A typical search will provide a brief history of the
town/village as well as links to historic maps, statistics, writings, census
information, etc. on the town. This one website can quickly provide great
geographical and historical context to ancestral searches. The website is
run by the University of Portsmouth.

Note: to download their
databases such as the historical maps, digital boundaries and historical
statistics is limited to users in the UK, universities, colleges and
schools. To read the limitations click on the tab "data
access".

Thank you to Genealogy In Time Magazine for alerting us to this
very interesting website.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews has a new video on their
website: "The Virtual Shtetl Is Discovering Belarus." The movie shows
Virtual Shtetl workers and volunteers' efforts to unearth and record the
Jewish heritage in Belarus. It is a 17.5 minute video by Julia Poplawska. It
shows the virtual shtetl workers search and record the Jewish history of
Belarus by visiting several small towns, cemeteries and interviewing
residents. The short film is available in Polish, English and
Belarusian--the later twowith subtitles. It can be viewed at: http://tinyurl.com/c4rt5k8original
url:http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/cms/news/2616,virtual-shtetl-discovers-belarus/

The
movie was made possible due to financial support of the US Embassy (Federal
Assistance Award for the 'Supporting transition in Belarus by promotion of
good practices of preservation of Jewish heritage' project) in Poland and the
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Poland.

France has a long history of civil registration of births, marriages
and deaths--starting in 1792. It covers people of all denominations.
French records also include "margin records"-- these are hand-written notes
that may lead to additional records. Records of civil registration are
typically held in registries in the local town hall, with copies deposited
each year with the local magistrate's court. Records over 100 years old are
placed in the Archives Départementales (series E) and are available for
public consultation. Many Departmental Archives have placed portions of
their holdings online, often beginning with the civil records. To read
more about French civil records see: http://tinyurl.com/9j4v2v9http://genealogy.about.com/od/france/a/French-Civil-Registration.htm?nl=1

Our schedule for this upcoming year
is set! Please visit our Website for the latest information:

2012 - 2013 Schedule (updated July 31, 2012)

The Phoenix Jewish Genealogy Society holds monthly Sunday afternoon
Open-Houses during which we begin with a brief refresher on a particular
resource or method of research. Following that, experienced researchers
are available to give individual assistance. All Sunday afternoon
workshops/refreshers meet at Beth El Congregation from 1-3 PM in the
computer lab (enter through the Schurgin Center door in the rear of the main
building at Beth El. Participation in any (OR ALL) workshops/refreshers
is free to members, $5 for non-members (which includes membership). Our open house Sundays begin with a Research Review and Refresher - each
month we feature a review of research techniques or materials. Bring your lap-top (we have wi-fi) or use one of our internet-connected
computers. During the Sunday meetings, we are on-line for those members
who cannot join us on-site. There will be plenty of people on-hand to
assist with research questions.

Genealogy 101 --
Beginning genealogy classes – and Cyber-Genealogy if you ever wanted to
know how to research your family tree, learn about different
formats for maintaining your tree, the questions to ask and who to ask,
and how to understand the available resources - records, photographs and
other data, please consider joining us.Cyber-Genealogy teaches
you how to use a variety of internet tools to help you in your
research.

Are you interested in
learning about your ancestors? Researching your family history is not as
hard as you think! It just takes time, patience,and persistence.
Join us and learn how to create a Family Tree and find out who
your ancestors were. The classes will be held at Beth El on
Glendale Ave in Phoenix

Cyber-Genealogy:

Wednesdays, 6:30 - 7:45
PM November 7, 14 & 28, 2012 - so, you've started your family tree
and want to take advantage of internet resources but don't know
where to begin (or how). This workshop will guide you through using
some of the more popular internet research tools and give
you some tips on finding others.

Genealogy
101:

Wednesdays 6:30 - 7:45 PM
January 16, 23 and 30 - learn how to start your own family
tree and how to maintain it

I would like to hope that those of you who attended the
IAJGS International Conference returned home with their genealogy
"tank" refilled and eager to become involved in one of the JewishGen
projects - for instance, let's say the Yizkor Book Project <g> I'm quite
sure that those of you who attended the Yizkor Book Birds of a Feather meeting
under the leadership of Jan Meisels Allen are particularly inspired by her to
become involved in our project. Anyway, if you were or weren't at the
conference and would like to take some part in the Yizkor Book Project in some
fashion - translating, transliterating, coordinating, editing or... I would
certainly like hear from you and discuss what part of the project calls out to
you.

Once again, I am pleased to let you know that a further
book is now completely online - "Rabka Four - Instruments of Genocide and
Grand Larceny"

that was written by Robin O'Neil, who researches the
Holocaust with insights and skills he acquired in his years as police major
crimes investigator at Scotland Yard. Robin has generously donated a number of
his manuscripts and for those who are yet to be familiar with this unique
research, I'm sure you will find them a real eye-opener.

We are very fortunate to have a long-standing arrangement
with Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, which enables us to receive Excel files of
necrologies extracted from a wide range of Yizkor books. On our side, a team of
conscientious volunteers transliterate these lists into English and allow us to
make them available to the general public. This month, in particular, we've
added in a number of necrologies which come from books that are not widely
available and are particularly important for researchers and, at the same time,
allow us to immortalize the names of our people who met their death during the
Holocaust. Later on, yet another team of conscientious volunteers led by Max
Heffler, convert these lists into a format which can be uploaded to our necrology
database and the help of all these volunteers is very much appreciated and
allow us this wide range of research options.

Now to facts and figures - as far as the July figures go,
during this last month we have added these 5 new projects: